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Students who are being left behind

October 16, 2012 | 2:13 p.m.

In today's educational world, children are expected to learn things a lot earlier then they have in the past. The children are so focused on learning things like math, science, English and history that the children who are better at extracurricular subjects like music, dance or drama are not able to learn the things they are truly passionate about. Children are taught to only work in certain educational standards, and as we grow older, we lose the creativity that we had as children because of our educational system.

Today’s children are expected to learn things that we would have learned much later in life because of the No Child Left Behind program. The children are all tested on a standardized test. While it is good to know where a child is in their learning, it is not best to focus solely on the testing scores. Some children’s skills cannot be reflected on any kind of standardized testing.

The children who are better at non-academic things are shoved to the side, left to think they are less then the rest of the student body because they cannot learn as quickly as they are expected to learn. Without the arts in school, children who are more artistic are, in fact, being left behind.

There are some districts that are cutting back on things that should really still be taught in our schools. The Los Angeles school district has cut cursive writing from its curriculum. While it is true that not many people use cursive now because of technology, why should that stop us from teaching the children something that could actually be used in day-to-day lives?